Bolivar

Publisher's Summary

It is astonishing that Simón Bolívar, the great Liberator of South America, is not better known in the United States. He freed six countries from Spanish rule, traveled more than 75,000 miles on horseback to do so, and became the greatest figure in Latin American history. His life is epic, heroic, straight out of Hollywood: he fought battle after battle in punishing terrain, forged uncertain coalitions of competing forces and races, lost his beautiful wife soon after they married and never remarried (although he did have a succession of mistresses, including one who held up the revolution and another who saved his life), and he died relatively young, uncertain whether his achievements would endure. Drawing on a wealth of primary documents, novelist and journalist Marie Arana brilliantly captures early 19th-century South America and the explosive tensions that helped revolutionize Bolívar. In 1813 he launched a campaign for the independence of Colombia and Venezuela, commencing a dazzling career that would take him across the rugged terrain of South America, from Amazon jungles to the Andes mountains. From his battlefield victories to his ill-fated marriage and legendary love affairs, Bolívar emerges as a man of many facets: fearless general, brilliant strategist, consummate diplomat, passionate abolitionist, gifted writer, and flawed politician. A major work of history, Bolívar colorfully portrays a dramatic life even as it explains the rivalries and complications that bedeviled Bolívar’s tragic last days. It is also a stirring declaration of what it means to be a South American.

Sorry for the Short Delay

Unfortunately, that depends on our systems, and they're keeping it to themselves. It could take a few minutes, but there's a chance it will be longer. We recommend that you check back with us in a few hours, when your title should be available for download in My Library. We appreciate your patience, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Please contact customer service if the problem persists.
(888) 283-5051

Enter Promo Code

See More Like This

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

There will be blood.

Any additional comments?

I was completely absorbed by this audiobook! As a Venezuelan, I superficially studied Bolívar's life and the War of Independence in school, but the version I learned was very politically correct. This book shows both the strengths and weaknesses of The Liberator, and that made the experience all the more enlightening. I wish this had been available when I was a teenager! Personally, I wasn't aware of how brutal all participating sides had been during the conflict! Yikes! In that sense, this was an eye opener. Yes, there was courage and sacrifice, but also a surreal amount of violence and bloodshed. I was shocked and saddened by this perspective. The book includes a lot of detail without ever being even slightly tedious. No matter where you're from, chances are you'll be similarly fascinated with the history. There's much to learn from it and it would easily make an epic blockbuster movie.

The narrator did a great job, only he constantly mispronounces the name of the city of Coro: the accent is on the first syllable, not the second! This is irritating as the city plays a recurrent role in the life of Bolívar and its name is repeated hundreds of times. Crommett's awful pronunciation of French words (mainly names and cities) is also a bit annoying, but there's a very limited number of these. What's most important is that he reads at a very nice pace (not too slowly or too quickly) and both his English and Spanish are very clear.

Marie Arana wrote a great biography of Bolivar, she covered not only the positive but the negative aspects of the man. Arana's prose is often beautiful, it is apparently from the writing she is a novelist turned biographer. The story almost reads as a historical novel, she keeps your attention to every word. Arana brings the story to life, the reader feels as if one is there and part of the action. Bolivar was a 19th Century leader, born in Venezuela.He was born into a wealthy family and received education both in his home country but also in Spain and France. What he accomplished is mind boggling! The military action lasted twice as long as the U.S. revolution and territory cover was 7 times larger. He led both a revolution and a civil war. Bolivar evicted Spain from a million square miles of territory in an eleven year campaign. Battles fought against a trained Spanish army of superior numbers. His army had to go on superhuman marches though rain swollen jungles and over snow-capped Andes Mountains to fight the battles often with only a few days rest. He freed the area now called Venezuela, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The book explains why Bolivar thought the U.S. type of democracy would not work in South America with it mixed races of creole, indigenous Indians, black slaves, Spanish and other Europeans. Arana explains Bolivar belief, the three hundred years of tyranny by Spain and how, Spain deliberately kept the people un-educated and pitted against each other, were not ready to govern themselves. He thought that at a later date, a British type of government was better, but he made the mistake of setting up the area for rule by dictators . Arana explains how he ended up dying poor and hated by the people but later brought back to hero status. David Crommett did a good job narrating the story and all the Spanish names. If you are interested in history and would like to learn more about our neighbors to the south you will enjoy this book.